Writer's Block Calls For A Visual Media Response

My fancy way of saying I got some memes.

May 03, 2024

**Auntie Mavis in an early musing moment**; *Christnot family archives*

I've got over a half dozen drafts going and twice as many outlines jotted down, but for months I've felt too scattered to complete them.

Every day begins with “today I'm going to finish…” and ends with “maybe tomorrow.”

I was laid off from my full-time job awhile ago and I've been freelancing since then. It keeps a roof over my head, I wanted to lose weight anyway and I only take my meds that just ran out during the winter.

So that kind of worked out OK.

I've been poor most of my life, so while it's not ideal, I have the skills to survive on next to nothing—ramen is cheaper in bulk. But my ability to help my family is gone.

As the matriarch now, if I have two nickels to rub together but my family needs something, they get at least $0.09. Not a great retirement plan, but that's how NDN Country rolls tradish.

I ended up resorting to crowdfunding—details in the link—to try to keep Miwákáŋyéja Winn (my disabled nibling), Mičuwé Helen and myself mobile. Winn provides our rides in the minivan they need for their wheelchair—public transportation isn't a thing in rural America.

It's time to admit I'm depressed and struggling which makes that no meds bit kind of suck.

Anyway, in lieu of getting my isht together for one of my many half done or planned pieces, here's some things that amused me recently.

Fair Warning: Things Are About To Get Silly

Remember those 80s and 90s “this is your brain” PSAs?

Minus NDN isht and the autism annex, this is my brain and the brain of most of my close friends and fellow Christnots.

I mean…

I did play with Barbie dolls as a child though, so I wasn't entirely odd per society's standards.

However it did often resemble this.

For me, GI Joe and his buddies fought against Barbie and her army of fashion model assassins because I didn't have any Kaiju or monster figures.

Šič'éši (my cousin) Brian had several GI Joes, their Jeep, and assorted other gear. Mičuwé Helen and I had Barbie's Dream Camper.

Back in the 1970s, GI Joe was Ken with kung-fu grip, but Barbie and PJ usually kicked his ass.

Speaking of Monty Python, this cracked me up.

Monty Python references end up in all sorts of places and almost always amuse me.

Then send me off into a recitation of that sketch or that movie.

And speaking of aging without grace.

In addition to writing, I also do freelance editing.

Autism has its perks—for some of us, grammar and spelling skills are two of them. My skills are needed because spellcheck isn't editing.

I don't know how many times I've seen errors—like in this Zillow posting called out by Stephanie—make it online or into print.

But the comments on Stephanie's post… 🤭

Spellcheck only ensures you have A correctly spelled word, not THE correct word.

And even if you've got all the right words, the order they go in can change the overall meaning.

Like this.

*You mean "Study finds atheists are more likely than Christians to own cats"?*

Now, while I cringe over all errors, those in professional content for a person's business or brand or in print media really make me wince.

But do you have to point them out?

I found several errors when I read the digital copy of a friend's memoir recently.

For example, in one section the word wheelchair was replaced with whalechair.

But is there a point to being this person?

Maybe if I say something they can update the digital version—I have no idea how that realm of publishing works.

But I don’t know if the editors they paid out of pocket did any better with the print version, so my feedback might accomplish nothing other than upsetting them.

So I've kept my mouth shut.

But it still haunts me…